Chapter 522

This feeling... is quite interesting.

She stood up, withdrawing her bewildered gaze, and like any other living being, began to feel curious about the world around her. She fully understood the concepts surrounding everything—the wind and snow, the machinery, the sky... but due to her uniqueness, she had never actually touched anything. It was this strange perception that allowed her, on a conceptual level, to fully understand what a snowflake should feel like, its texture, its shape, and even how it crystallizes.

Although, before this... she had never been in contact with snowflakes.

The girl stretched out her hand and watched the snowflakes melt in her palm. She understood everything, yet she hadn't experienced it all. Just a single snowflake was enough for her to gaze at for a long time. Finally, when her palm was completely empty, she began to observe her surroundings. What had happened here?

In the distance, a white spear was stuck in the ground. The newborn girl walked forward aimlessly, while the black smoke-belching debris next to her caught her attention. Looking at the wrecked tank in front of her, the girl rested her chin on her hand and pondered.

"It transformed from a machine into a destructive machine? That sounds like obvious, but..."

She muttered to herself; this was her almost instinctive way of perceiving the outside world. She could easily distinguish other substances from other substances; as for concepts, she was naturally more accustomed to perceiving concepts.

Looking at the "damaged machinery" in front of her, the girl became very interested. She seemed to be talking to herself, or as if she were talking to the scrapped machine. She quite liked this novel feeling.

"Hmm... it's alright. Let me see your story. You didn't disappear. When disappearance is considered a concept, it still exists, doesn't it?"

As soon as she finished speaking, in the blink of an eye, all the information about the machine flowed into the woman's body. Through a technique called transcription, she easily learned its entire life story.

Completed four years ago... To prevent the leakage of core technologies, components were produced by three related companies... It has served in Schicksal for many years and has undergone three overhauls... During the mission to retrieve the Sixth Divine Key, it was damaged due to an excessive amount of Honkai energy of unknown origin... This is the life of this machine.

Chapter 414 Tools of Life and Death

Excessive Honkai energy? Indeed, it seems like some kind of disaster has occurred nearby, but perhaps that's why I was able to cross the boundary?

After withdrawing her hand and handing over the "life" of the mecha in front of her, the white-haired girl continued forward. Before her was a lone spear stuck in the ground, white shaft, black grip, the Sixth Divine Key... Was this what they were looking for? The girl reached out her hand just as she had with the mecha, but just as she was about to extract the relevant information from the object, she hesitated again.

She had a feeling... for some reason, that the bloodstained weapon in front of her emitted an aura similar to her own... no, rather than similar, it was more like the opposite... that didn't quite seem right either? The girl hesitated, pondering what was going on... Finally, she noticed the bloodstains on the spear. Yes, this must be what was related to her.

It wasn't the weapon itself, but the blood stained with it. The girl reached out, deciding to infuse the dried blood into her mind, and as her "ability" unfolded, the experiences of the blood's owner began to appear in her mind.

"As you know, the holy blood flowing through your body, named after Saniyat, can completely eliminate Honkai energy within its range in an instant. When it comes to fighting Honkai, your blood is indeed the most efficient tool."

In my memory, the person who uttered these words was a flamboyant blond man. As he spoke leisurely, his gaze remained fixed on a quietly operating machine... It was silently and efficiently filtering the blood of the girl sharing the room. And that constantly flowing dark red liquid was setting the stage for many things that would follow.

Otto Apocalypse, the Bishop of Schicksal, and the girl filtering blood was Cecilia, the strongest Valkyrie at that time.

"So, according to His Excellency the Bishop, if I encounter an enemy I cannot stop..."

Looking at the blood flowing quietly in the tube next to her, Celia understood something.

"As you think, slicing open their arteries is far more efficient than fighting to exhaustion. But until the God-Slaying Spear makes progress, I won't allow you to do that. After all, because of your special nature, after massive blood loss, we can't resuscitate you like a normal person. In fact, the first step in developing the God-Slaying Spear is to clone this holy blood. But even if we can successfully do that, it will be difficult to find a way to mass-produce it. And that means that unless extremely unusual circumstances occur... I won't allow you to use blood as a weapon."

Otto said these words to the woman in front of him. Because of her personality, he had no doubt that she might kill him with her efficient fighting style. So before that, he needed to give her a heads-up.

"But..."

The woman wanted to argue that it was an extremely unusual situation, meaning that she couldn't use such methods in normal combat. She knew the bishop's personality well; the unusual situation he described was different from the unusual situation she understood. He meant that even if people who had been persecuted by the Honkai appeared before her eyes, he wouldn't allow her to do such a thing.

"I know that, given your personality, explaining it to this extent is probably not enough to stop you from going to your death. You are still too young. Although you are experiencing the bloodline of Saniyat every minute, you still know very little about its strangeness. Let me think... The curse of the Stigmata, is this the first time I have mentioned it to you?"

Knowing that if he didn't explain clearly, his ace would do something he didn't want to see, this genius who was fighting against the Honkai continued to speak, "The curse of the Stigmata? What is that?"

"That's right. Unlike the Kaslana family, what sustains the Saniyat bloodline is an accidental genetic mutation, or rather... mutated information. The holy blood in your body now, including your entire genetic makeup, is the product of my classification and purification of this information. There's something you need to be aware of."

After a slight pause, seeing the girl's serious expression, Otto continued his story.

"Note that I'm talking about classification, not optimization. Completely removing information that is likely to cause side effects from your genes is something even I can't do."

"Ah... Even His Holiness the Bishop couldn't do something like this?"

"There is actually a way... but if I did that, you would be weaker than an ordinary person, let alone become the strongest Valkyrie. In fact, the contradictions within the Stigmata of Saniyat are beyond your imagination. Over the years, have you never had any doubts about the two completely different powers of your own kind?"

After posing this question, Cecilia pondered for a moment and realized what Otto meant; he must be referring to...

"Completely different... Does this mean that some people are good at strengthening the Honkai energy they manipulate, and therefore are suitable to become warriors, while others are good at weakening the erosion of Honkai energy, and therefore are more suitable to become doctors?"

"That's right. The bloodline of Saniyat is a contradictory existence that conflicts with itself. In most of its descendants, such as me, the result of this conflict is only to add a little bit of Honkai energy resistance, which is better than nothing. This is what is called the curse of the Stigmata."

Using himself as an example without reservation, he said that he could neither become a doctor nor a warrior, and that he only had slightly more Honkai energy resistance than normal people. The curse of this Stigmata also affected the arrangements for Celia.

"If I purify either one separately, you will either become an experimental subject who can only provide holy blood, or you will be able to Honkai energy for a short period of time, and then quickly lose your own life."

The two possible fates of Cecilia were described, but this left Cecilia confused. If that was the case, then why had she become the way she was now, and why did she aim to become the strongest Valkyrie?

"But if that's the case, why would Your Excellency the Bishop...!"

"It seems you guessed it. Heh, that's right. I will use it to neutralize the part expressed in your blood, and to strengthen the other part expressed in your muscles and bones. This cultivation process has taken hundreds of years, and I don't intend to explain it in detail. However, Cecilia, you can be more proud, even if you only consider yourself a tool."

Chapter 415

Cecilia remained silent, but Otto didn't care about her reaction. Intrigued, he continued recounting his century-long achievements, implying that she held limitless potential.

"In this way, you unite two conflicting forces into one, wielding the Black Abyss White Flower and unleashing the power of creation and decay. And if you choose to break this delicate balance, perhaps the blooming holy blood will continue to exert its influence, turning the place where you sacrificed into Honkai forbidden zone, a paradise on earth."

Having stated this possibility, before Cecilia could even react, Otto added another possibility.

"But it's also possible that it will reverse as I fear, turning into a Honkai, toxic blood after leaving your body without being processed. Of course, there are other unforeseen possibilities, but in that case... frankly, even I don't know what will happen."

"But..."

The memory of Celia was still saying something, but the girl who had glimpsed this memory through the bloodline had no intention of watching any longer; it had absolutely no connection to what she wanted to discover. It was just information she had known from the beginning. The girl shifted her perspective, manipulated the timeline in her mind, and then re-perceived this snowfield. She returned to a time not long ago, to the moment when the event later known as the Second Honkai was about to end.

In the snowy plains, Cecilia, the girl from before, was now extremely weak. She had become more mature than before, but her current state was far from good.

"Ah... um... I'm sorry, Siegfried. I lied to you... This time, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back with you. I'm sorry, Kiana... When you grow up, you must take good care of your father..."

She spoke these words haltingly, her body visibly weak. Holy Blood Liberation: Abyss Flower Blood, using more than half of her own blood as a catalyst, this strongest Valkyrie unleashed a devastating attack upon absolute calamity.

For the being interpreting this scene, however, her focus was not on the earth-shattering heroic act. Her Stigmata, in this extreme state, did indeed surpass the Herrscher of the Void, briefly bridging all boundaries between reality and the imaginary.

At this moment, the girl born during the Second Honkai of Siberia recalled the words of the long-haired golden-haired man she had seen in her previous memories.

Of course, there are other unforeseen possibilities. But in such a situation... frankly, even I don't know what would happen.

At that very instant of connection to the imaginary number, the existence known to humans as the Stigmata Space appeared in the world for the first time in a form resembling that of a human. It was the first concrete evidence of the arrival of the Form, an unexpected result of the curse of the Stigmata brought to Saniyat.

That is... myself?

Realizing this, then the scene she had just witnessed was also due to the Second Honkai ... If that were all she knew, perhaps she could have made this judgment rashly and believed it for a time. And the mech she had just seen, damaged during its mission to retrieve the Sixth Divine Key, destroyed by an unknown amount of excessive Honkai energy ...

The saintess, at the cost of her own life, scattered crimson flowers of redemption across the snowfield, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and countless families. Cecilia Saniyat, in her dying moments, indeed accurately grasped the trajectory of the Stigmata's power. The so-called reversal the bishop spoke of did not exist; otherwise, the fate of those hundreds of thousands would have been no different from that of the machines before her.

If that's the case, then the only explanation for the wreckage she saw on this journey is that Cecilia saved this land, and her appearance...

"No... this is not... because I... am not..."

Kneeling in the snow, the girl seemed to have lost all her strength. It has been said that there is a sense of pleasure in disaster. Destroying and ruining everything is an alluring act. For ordinary people, this desire may be deeply rooted in their hearts. But for the incredibly special Stigmata of Saniyat, for its crystallization, its ideal form...

The girl turned around and looked at the place where she was born, and at the path she had traveled... Despair began to appear on the girl's face, accompanied by a shrill, unutterable tremor.

In order to find out what had happened before, she followed the path and discovered her origin, but from the beginning she was unable to heal the disaster, because... she was the disaster itself.

Phew... So that's how it is. She... Hato, is she Stigmata that exists directly in physical form? Although it doesn't make sense, it matches the information Mei obtained.

Having seen that memory and learned about Feathered Rabbit's past, Bronya now saw the information implanted by Feathered Rabbit. She had just experienced everything from Feathered Rabbit's perspective, and the information implanted by Feathered Rabbit was now presented in a manner identical to the previous images. Through her previous analysis, Bronya had already deciphered and fixed it.

"So next, we need to prepare for the separation."

Standing before me are "digital" Archetype Seed, appearing in this form... Each Archetype Seed is a memory that needs to be extracted, and the memory I just saw was indeed related to Kiana's mother. As Bronya extracted the memories, the Archetype Seed in front of me disappeared. Is it finally over?

Progress seems a bit slow. Let's find the other information implanted by Yuto quickly. There should be about five left. Looking around at the Archetype Seed, Bronya continued her work. Using the unique properties of the Herrscher of Reason in this situation, the girl once again connected herself to the fragment before her. Which memory, this time, would it be?

As her memories unfolded, the first thing that appeared in Bronya's ears was a long poem-like passage. This kind of literary youth... must be the Gray Serpent whom Shen Gonglin called a great writer.

Yes, I have heard tales of the horrors of hell. A place of exile, a land of torment. The land is covered with burning thorns; the slowly flowing rivers are also formed of sulfur. All who do evil are cast into the rubble, thrown into eternal fire, to be eternally burned for their sins. The deeper the sin, the fiercer the flames—a torment beyond death.

Chapter 416 Not a Good Person

Such suffering is inescapable and endless, yet it is not without hope.

As soon as he finished speaking, Gray Serpent didn't look too good. In Yutu's memories, Bronya could experience everything firsthand; she could see everything from Yutu's perspective. Even though he had prepared himself, getting close to the other party still caused Gray Serpent's body to suffer uncontrollable corrosion. After a long time, he finally reawakened his mechanical eyes, the means by which he could see.

Contrary to his earlier description of a scene as fiery as hell, the snow falling beside the man was like the ashes of heaven. Between sentences, the Gray Serpent would occasionally shift its gaze from the man before it to a window in the distance reflecting blinding sunlight.

Gray Serpent... Was it in Siberia during the Second Honkai?

Within that dazzling silvery-white expanse, a spy lurked, a fact the Gray Serpent was well aware of. While the proximity piqued his curiosity, he wasn't particularly concerned.

After all, compared to the ideal form before him, the strange behavior of the voyeur seemed insignificant.

"Please continue. If you really don't mind... dying again just to tell me these things."

The white-haired girl in front of the Gray Serpent spoke. Her voice was low, but the threat in her words was clearly visible in the icy snow. However, the Gray Serpent seemed to lack the fear it should have felt in this situation.

"It doesn't matter. The meaning of things is always revealed after they end. In short, even the most wicked, if someone is willing to weep for these hellish sufferers, their tears will fall from above the flames. That is enough to alleviate the suffering of the punished... If the tears are plentiful enough, they can even temporarily extinguish the fire."

The Gray Serpent in front of him opened its umbrella, the black fabric shielding him from the falling snowflakes. Upon hearing his words, the white-haired girl... the embodiment born from the Stigmata, Yuto, remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"In other words, you also believe that I am already unforgivable."

"Yes, and it happens to be the kind that's hard to evoke tears from. You're also in a kind of pain that transcends death, and compared to this apparent raging fire, you're not only powerless to understand it, but you don't even have the hope of extinguishing it. Otherwise, you wouldn't be talking to me in this way now."

Speechless... After being exposed for using a method that couldn't kill herself, the woman finally left the roaring campfire. The marks left by the flames on her body vanished without a trace in an instant. This method truly couldn't kill her, and it didn't even evoke the slightest feeling of atonement in her.

"I thought you were telling me this story to comfort me."

Yu Tu dusted herself off. What did this person who suddenly appeared want? Interrupting someone's suicide attempt was truly a very impolite thing to do.

"As a visitor from the other side, since you can so easily grasp the essence of things... concealing it would be a waste of effort. Indeed, in reality, whichever method is used, deepening the despair you feel is more in my interest. Only in this way will my invitation to you, which I will risk my other life for, have a greater chance of success."

Having stated his purpose once again, Gray Serpent tilted the umbrella slightly to one side and extended his hand to the other party.

"Join the World Serpent, and your wish will be fulfilled."

This isn't the first time we've done this, and the result is that many of our units have been destroyed, but as long as we can successfully invite them, it's all worth it.

Admittedly, this wasn't the first time she'd heard such an invitation, so... Yu Tu, who had been standing by the campfire, raised her head.

"You know the answer, as for the Stigmata Plan you mentioned... even if it is the reality of the future, I still have no interest. Consider this my request: leave this place... to this day, I still can't get used to... seeing other lives wither away because of me."

Still unwilling to accept the World Serpent's invitation, what she wanted to do was continue to find a way to achieve her goals. Flames could not kill her, there were always other ways. Her current existence would cause death if anyone got close, so Yu Tu wanted the person in front of her to leave.

"That's completely unnecessary. After spending so much time with you at this distance, this body is beyond repair."

Gray Serpent paid no attention to his prosthetic body, which was Honkai energy. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and he stood before her with a clear understanding of the situation.

"Just like every time before."

This wasn't the first time the person called Gray Serpent had stood before him, nor was it the first time he had disintegrated due to getting too close. Yet, the other party persisted. This purpose... the World Serpent.

"That's right. And this is the condition I'm going to use to persuade you to join the World Serpent, your craving... death."

Knowing what the woman before him was pursuing, and that the World Serpent could satisfy her desires.

"...I don't quite understand what you mean."

"It's not just your body that's unusual. Since I can always find you, it's not difficult for me to know everything about you. For example, because you are in pain far beyond hell at all times, you have tried to end your life dozens of times; and I was fortunate enough to watch half of those attempts live."

The Gray Serpent revealed this story, and the woman in front of him felt very uncomfortable. She instinctively clutched her arms, realizing that this was truly...

"You really are... disgusting."

"It's alright. My means of achieving my goals have never included making others think I'm cute. As for you, although you are completely empty... the imagination you've shown in killing yourself is indeed unexpected, yet utterly nonsensical."

Speaking in a lame, dry style, Gray Serpent described how Feather Rabbit committed suicide.

"You need no air, yet you try to plunge into deep water; you are not a real entity, yet you choose to be stabbed by a blade. The reason I've come today is to end this futile and pointless wasting of your time and offer something truly effective. For example..."

Just as he was about to speak, the white-haired woman interrupted Gray Serpent.

"I'm sorry you're a little late. You know, I can welcome the Stigmata within a human body according to my heart."

He didn't intend to accept Gray Serpent's opinion; he was too late, and... this person didn't seem like a good person at all.

Chapter 417

"That's true, but I also know that you had already given up on this method when we first met."

"But... what makes me refuse you today is precisely this. Someone who can endure the forced awakening of Stigmata without withering away... I have finally met him."

She didn't want to die now, because she had already found someone to whom she could entrust her wishes, so joining the World Serpent wasn't the best solution.

"This surprises me... The chosen ones are one in ten thousand; once they disappear, it's nearly impossible to find a second one..."

Gray Serpent sighed, and then, without warning, Gray Serpent raised his usual pistol towards the window he had just seen. He finally understood that the hidden spy was the biggest obstacle to his journey.

"You!"